1. Field
The invention is related to a high pressure housing assembly, and more particularly to a high pressure housing assembly suitable for use in underwater environments.
2. Related Art
Fiber optic cables have become more prevalent in communications and sensing applications in subsea oil and gas, and military applications. As more optical fiber is used in subsea infrastructure, there is an increasing need for a cost effective, high reliability, space efficient pressure vessel to house both optical and electrical components.
One of the key challenges in subsea system design is to provide a one atmosphere hollow pressure vessel attached to transmission cables that can be used to house components needed in various subsea industries such as communications, defense, and offshore oil and gas markets with the ability to withstand the hydrostatic pressures of deep and ultra-deep sea environments. Designing this type of pressure vessel to be hermetically sealed and resistant to corrosion while making the pressure house capable of being re-entered if necessary has proved to be a significant design challenge.
In subsea communications and control systems, it is common practice to package or splice copper and/or fiber optic conductors in pressure vessels that are connected to a cable. One significant challenge has been to maintain the structural integrity of the pressure vessel housing and cable while keeping the overall weight as light as possible for assembly and deployment purposes. Many methods have been employed to solve these technical problems. These methods typically require separate mechanical parts or sub-assemblies that are bolted or welded together to form the complete pressure vessel assembly. This welded method does not allow re-entry into the pressure vessel if needed during the manufacturing, testing and handling prior to deployment. The bolted case and cover method requires a significant number of high strength fasteners and extra material around the fasteners to transfer the load into the housing components resulting in thick walled housings.
Some of the conventional technology includes:                1. All metal pressure housing with one or more bolted on end caps;        2. Pressure housings with end caps that are attached via internal screw threads;        3. Pressure housings with external slide shell configuration requiring internal axial load end-cap support structure;        4. All metal pressure housing vessel with welded case and cover type construction;        5. Two piece all metal “clam-shell” type construction;        6. Non-metallic pressure vessel housing; and        7. Hybrid pressure vessel construction using metallic and non-metallic construction components.        